# 11

# mindfulness.

# Grounding feet.

Grounding feet is good always. Like everything, it begins with self-awareness (as far as the use of it for self-care). When you care about yourself, you soothe yourself when you notice the feelings of being agitated, or out of sync with the way you like to feel (balanced - not too much, not too little, enough). For those of you familiar with the popular emotional regulation curriculum, Zones of Regulation, this is a great skill when you notice you are in the yellow zone.

This is how I do it and my ‘why’ - you may have your own interpretation and application.

Bring your awareness to your big toes and push them into the ground (sitting or standing). Notice the sensation (best you can without judgment, comparison, criticism). Then spread your toes out as much as you can and plant your little toe into the ground. In yoga, toe spreading is cued often which is how I learned. Next bring your awareness to the sensation of grounding the back of your heel on the side of the little toe, and then over to the inside back heel, behind your big toe.

Notice the sensation in your feet. Best you can, without judgement, comparison, criticism.

You can end it there. It may be enough to bring you back to present moment awareness and feeling in charge of your focus.

**In the slide I have a thought bubble. When I prepare a class or small group for a mindfulness practice, I tell them to notice where they are in space and time. I also add, ‘notice what it’s like to be exactly who you are…now.’ I desire to get kids curious about their physical body sitting in a balanced way by having them see if they can be curious about their skeleton - their bones. Is the left and right side of their body in balance if they could see their skeleton in an xray? Is there space between the bones? In the slide, the dragon icon represents breath. Notice where you are in space and time. Are you sitting in a way that feels balanced: not too much, not too little, enough. Breathe. Notice breath in your body.

Here is a little more understanding for your own application, or to facilitate for others:

Consider left brain and right brain. Left brain being in charge of right side of body, and right brain being in charge of left side of the body. When we feel out of sync with balance it is because we ARE out of balance. You may have a concrete understanding of balance as it relates to motor skills and vestibular sensation in reference to students, or your self (ie. vertigo). Take a second to just wonder about your emotional balance on the inside - not too much, not too little, enough. What does enough feel like? You have a way of being exactly who you are. You have a guidance mechanism inside of you, your intuition. It doesn’t go anywhere. We just disconnect ourselves from it. It will lead you if you allow it to. If you aren’t familiar with it, the more you are curious and the more you practice awareness of your inside world, you naturally resonate with what you call intuition, your knowing. It’s your thing. Between you and you.

When we get out of sync with balance, we tend to do one of two things (generally speaking). We get super rigid or super spacey. Our awareness and the skill of notice.name. (check IN) can help us recognize where we may be stuck. We can use our breath, and our imagination, to bring us back to a more integrated, balanced, experience of present moment.

Feeling spacey? Ground yourself into the physical space by imagining yourself breathing in all that spacey from above (non physical space, not something you can interpret through your 5 physical senses), breathe it in through the crown of your head, through your body, down through your feet into the ground. Ground the spacey energy as you breathe out. Notice the experience. Name the sensation of the experience - best you can. Allow the experience by observing rather than judging, comparing, critiquing. By noticing, naming, and allowing, the energy that isn’t helpful can move through and release. Your cells want to be balanced, they know how to get there. Give them space to do their thing.

Feeling rigid? Breathe in the physical ground energy (use your imagination to draw it up from inside the earth) and send it to the space above as you breathe out, and then breathe in the space above and send it to the earth as you breathe out.

If you are ambidextrous enough to imagine the left side and the right side - go for it and breathe in space down through the left side of your brain into the right side of your body, into the earth. Then breathe up the ground energy up through the left side of the body, up through the right side of your brain and into space above. I attend yoga nidra, I have never studied it. I think nidra supports this concept - integrating energy in one’s body through breath.

Practice on your own self. Care about yourself to be curious how to soothe your nervous system and responses (impulses/urges). Once you understand how it works and experience the soothing sensation in your own body, it is easy to share with others. And actually, when you do share with others, your own understanding and practice grows even more. Funny how that works.

** At the time this was written, I had a real time experience of a student in 4th grade who lived in his right brain, spacey, most of the time at school (he was also quite overwhelmed at school so there was the element of escape). Every time I met with him we practiced grounding feet. It wasn’t pretty. He was highly distracted. He got better each time, and I learned a lot about what and why I was facilitating the skill for him. I was not attached to a specific outcome, I chose to stay curious. Sometimes I felt like an idiot, but I figured I would know when it was time to move on. As soon as you think you are off track is when the student, parent, or teacher makes some comment about the student using the skill effectively. It hadn’t happened yet in this scenario. I personally used the skill on an airplane that was delayed - once boarded - for 2 hours. It worked perfectly and got me into focus to work on this project.

# 5 senses.

5 senses is a standard mindfulness practice - I think it is a skillset that is part of Jon Kabat Zinn’s popular and research based, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Most mindfulness practices that were used 8 years ago when I first got interested in teaching it to others were MBSR techniques.

Notice and name. 5 senses. Begin by noticing and naming 5 things that you see. Best you can without judgement, comparison, or criticism. I say to the student to be a curious observer of their experience as if they are a scientist. Notice and name 4 felt sensations in physical space and time (clothing, ground, chair, etc). 3 sounds. 2 smells. 1 taste. Invite in your own calming experience of the senses if it makes more ‘sense’ (ha). The object is to ground your energy into present time and space by bringing awareness to physical senses, soothing the nervous system to have choice around focus.

Self-awareness is the gateway to this skill being integrated throughout your day. Someone asked me what I do for self-care, and I thought to myself - ‘what don’t I do?’ . Once you notice you are out of alignment, out of sync - implement a strategy and anticipate the outcome of balance and a return to you being in charge of focus. The more you practice, it becomes a habit and you continually practice - constantly returning to balance and present moment awareness where you are in charge of focus.

# Noticing sensations.

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Sensations were really tricky for me when I first began practicing and facilitating mindfulness. It took me a long time to get mindful because I was so easily distracted and I wanted knowledge. My morning mindfulness practice began with coffee and reading. And then I found things to listen to online. I had a lot of momentum in thinking and gaining knowledge, and considering how I was going to teach what I was learning to others….rather than having the experience, and being a curious observer of experience, without the attachment to particular outcomes. I also did not like it when an author, or person I was being influenced by, told me some version of ‘it’s not easy’, ‘it takes work’, ‘you have to do the work’. I think there is a balance in that overall. I did do a HELL of a lot of personal work. I also feel that my most desired outcome was to understand the skills so that I could facilitate it to others in a simple way. I think it took me a long time because of the level of understanding and experience I wanted to have as a facilitator. I don’t think results need to take that long - and that we ‘earn’ outcomes, and it should be hard to be worthwhile. I think life is meant to be enjoyed - now.

Sensations. Lengthen something. Notice the sensation of lengthening. Can you be curious about the sensation? Soften something. Notice the sensation of softening. Can you be curious about the sensation? Comfortable or uncomfortable? Too much or not enough? Expand. Expand something. Notice the sensation of expansion. Can you be curious about the sensation?

Easy application: sitting or standing - lengthen spine, soften shoulders, expand chest (heart space). Do this throughout the day. Notice the reset. It becomes a habit.

Amy Cuddy’s popular TED talk can be great here - as this slide tees up the superhero pose. Amy also has an awesome book, Presence, that I couldn’t stop listening to on my Audible app.